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Last Days of the Desert Inn News, history and your memories of the Strip landmark Explosives bring down the Augusta Tower of the Desert Inn early Tuesday on the Strip. With the implosion over, site preparations can continue for the scheduled December start of construction for developer Steve Wynn's new resort, Le Reve. Photo by Jeff Scheid. Photo by Jeff Scheid. Photo by Jeff Scheid.

Wednesday, October 24, 2001
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

THE EVOLVING STRIP: Desert Inn down in the dust

Implosion of tower makes room for resort

Now that he's cleared away the parts of the Desert Inn he no longer needs, Steve Wynn can finish planning his Le Reve megaresort.

The Tuesday morning implosion of the Desert Inn's 14-story Augusta Tower went off without a hitch, allowing site preparations to continue for the scheduled December start of construction on Le Reve, which means "The Dream" in French.

"Planning Le Reve has been the most exciting experience of my life," Wynn said in a Friday phone interview. "I'm sitting where I'm usually sitting, at a design desk. This is what I'm addicted to."

Wynn, 59, said he expects his design team to complete the Le Reve model in about a month.

"It's been exquisitely uncomfortable," he said of the design process, noting the challenge of competing against Bellagio, his most recent megaresort creation.

"When we built Bellagio, we had no competition except Bellagio itself," Wynn said. "When it came time for Le Reve, Bellagio existed. We know the weaknesses of Bellagio, but we also know its strengths. Bellagio's a great model, a great target to go up against. Like a great fighter, it makes you work harder."

One key difference between the two properties is that Le Reve won't have a theme.

"Las Vegas needs more than a copycat," Wynn said. "You can't do a second volcano or a second squirt. Le Reve is about itself, about Las Vegas and our desert and the Southwestern U.S."

Construction of the new megaresort is expected to take about 30 months, with Le Reve's opening tentatively set for mid-2004.

Wynn paid Starwood Hotels & Resorts $270 million last year to acquire the Desert Inn. Le Reve's plans call for a 2,455-room, 42-story hotel tower and a multiacre man-made lake.

He said recently that Le Reve will cost about as much as the $1.6 billion Bellagio. Wynn plans to begin financing efforts in November.

Wynn plans to keep the Desert Inn's Palm and St. Andrews towers for a soon-to-open art gallery and for Wynn Resorts' office space. A parking garage on the north side of the property is also being kept.

The Augusta Tower's Tuesday morning implosion went smoothly, the man in charge of the demolition said.

"It was perfect. Even better than we had planned," said Darrell Richards, Wynn Resorts' project manager.

Eight loud blasts punctuated the early morning silence, and about nine seconds later the building began its collapse. The southern end of the tower fell first, with the middle and northern end following suit.

The implosion lasted about 20 seconds from the start of the blasts to the building's collapse.

A dust cloud about the size of the obliterated tower developed and moved slowly toward the northeast, leaving a haze hanging over the Strip half an hour after the implosion.

A small circle of Wynn's invited guests watched the implosion from the north side of the property, where the developer triggered the blasts that leveled the tower, Richards said.

Hundreds of people gathered on the Strip to watch the implosion, although police barricades kept observers south of Spring Mountain Road and north of Convention Center Drive.

"It was kind of eerie," said Ernie Villa of Phoenix after viewing the collapse from a perch near the Stardust. "I've never seen an implosion before, and to see the building come down, it just reminds me of the buildings falling on September 11."

Richards estimated the implosion's cost at about $500,000.

The implosion marked the seventh time in the past eight years a casino structure was transformed into rubble.

The Dunes made way for Bellagio in 1993. The Sands' demolition in 1996 allowed construction of The Venetian, the Hacienda's 1997 implosion cleared space for Mandalay Bay and the Aladdin's 1998 fall made room for its successor of the same name.

The El Rancho was imploded last year to make way for upscale condominiums, and the Landmark casino was imploded in 1995 and replaced by a parking lot.